1961 - Folse Drives Offy to Race Record

Des Moines winner Pete Folse is flanked by car owner Hector Honore (left) and starter Gene Van Winkle (right) in victory lane. 

Des Moines, Iowa (September 1, 1961) – Pete Folse, the International Motor Contest Association two-time champion, shattered an 11-year-old track record on Friday afternoon to claim his second major feature victory during the Iowa State Fair sprint car races.

The Tampa, Fla., veteran wheeled Hector Honore’s Offenhauser around the half-mile track for a 12.5-mile record of 10 minutes and 52.47 seconds before a crowd of 16,000.

The former mark of 11 minutes and 7.32 seconds was set by the late Frank Luptow on July 30, 1950.

Folse, who grabbed his fourth feature win in six days after a crack-up at Sedalia, Mo., on Saturday, finished a quarter of a mile ahead of Colby Scroggin, an Eagle Rock, Calif., veteran.

Scroggins, whose own car is undergoing repairs, drove the Vic Valentine Offy, finishing well ahead of Arnie Knepper, a Belleville, Ill., youngster who clipped Buzz Barton, a Tampa, Fla., heavyweight who won the Hawkeye Futurity earlier this season.

Folse, who started alongside Barton on the outside of the second row, had the feature nearly wrapped up by the time he hit the fifth lap, nearly an eighth of a mile in front of Scroggin, Knepper, Barton and Harold Leep of Wichita, Kan.

Folse, who hauled in $750 for the main event, and additional $75 for being a heat winner, had to settle for $20 in the special match race when he got boxed on the turns by winner Barton and second-place Jerry Blundy of Galesburg, Ill.

Promoter Al Sweeney also set some sort of a record for the fast program, staging 61 laps of competition in 1 hour and 33 minutes.

Results –

Heat #1 – Buzz Barton, Tampa, Fla.
Heat #2 – Pete Folse, Tampa, Fla.
Heat #3 – Walt McWhorter, Wichita, Kan.
Trophy dash – Buzz Barton
Consolation – Bill Billingsley, Oklahoma City, Okla.
Feature –
1. Pete Folse
2. Colby Scroggin, Eagle Rock, Calif.
3. Arnie Knepper, Belleville, Ill.
4. Buzz Barton
5. Jerry Blundy, Galesburg, Ill.
6. Jay Woodside, Wichita, Kan.
7. Mack Terry, Oklahoma City, Okla.
8. Cliff “Froggie” Droz, Ottumwa
9. Danny Pemble, Scranton
10.Sonny Helm, Avon Lake
11.Don Hartman, Kankakee, Ill.
12.Harold Leep, Wichita, Kan.